At least 10 new breweries have opened in old churches across the country since 2011, and at least four more are slated to open in the next year. The trend started after the 2007 recession as churches merged or closed because of dwindling membership. Sex abuse settlements by the Roman Catholic Church starting in the mid-2000s were not a factor because those payments were largely covered by insurers, according to Terrence Donilon, spokesman for the archdiocese of Boston…

…At the Church Brew Works in Pittsburgh, an early church-turned-brewery that opened in 1996, patrons slide into booths crafted from pews. Towering steel and copper vats sit on the church’s former altar. Yellow flags line the sanctuary emblazoned with the brewery’s motto: “ON THE EIGHTH DAY. MAN CREATED BEER.”

This could get me in a church again, but I’d still be looking for lightening lightning* (White lightning, perhaps?)

But I’m pleased to report that Oregon’s excellent Ninkasi Brewing Company has released their 2017 Oatis, and it is pretty grand stuff that even my friends who don’t like dark beers like this one. Intro to dark beers, perhaps?

My hometown of Paonia, CO (pop. approx. 1750, elevation 5430) is also the proud home of Revolution Brewing. They bought a fire and brimstone evangelical church after it disbanded in the late naughties, and are still going strong.